Basque ethnography at a glance
Eleuterio Goikoetxea with his family. Photographer: Felipe Manterola.
The 9th of July 2022 was the centenary of the opening of the Igiriñao mountain refuge (Gorbeia) and Zeanuri Council organised a ceremony at the hut to commemorate that fact and pay tribute to the man behind it, Eleuterio Goikoetxea. At 6.30 p.m. on 30 December, the presentation of the book entitled Eleuterio Goikoetxea y el refugio de Igiriñao. 1922-2022 [Eleuterio Goikoetxea and the Igiriñao Refuge] will take place at the Arkotxa building in Zeanuri.
Eleuterio Goikoetxea Goikouria was born in Zeanuri on 6 September 1888, at the Zubiate house, the property of the Rotaetxe family. His father, Felipe Goikoetxea, was the estate manager of the Rotaetxe, a post in which Eleuterio succeeded him. He mainly worked as a builder and property surveyor. He was a well-respected figure and his good offices were often sought to act as the mediator in neighbourhood disputes.
The Christmas Eve Dinner, Gabon afaria, is a ritual considered to be the quintessential family meal. All the people at the meal are usually members of the family and the married children return to the paternal home with their respective families. Nowadays, the married couples usually alternate by celebrating Christmas Eve with one set of parents and New Year’s Eve with the parents of the other spouse. In the past, the offspring who were servants in other houses were given leave by their masters to go to the dinner, along with the gift of a salted cod to take home. Those offspring would also sometimes take a bream, along with the salted cod, to the family meal.
Photo credit: Sancho el Sabio Foundation.
On 21 December, as every year, El Arenal and the Plaza Nueva square in Bilbao will be teeming with people enjoying the festive atmosphere of St. Thomas’s Market. Continuing a decades-long tradition, the baserritarras (farmers) and smallholders of Bizkaia will be there to showcase their best produce and thus bring the urban and rural worlds closer together.
This tradition dates back at least to the 19th century, when the tenant farmers went to the city to pay the annual rent to the owners of their farmsteads, the majority of whom lived in Bilbao. Given the closeness to Christmas, along with paying the rent, the tenants would gift the landlords a selection of the best produce from their land and their barnyards, as well as pork delicacies. According to the people interviewed, the farmers were treated to a lunch or a meal in return.
Toponymy is the study of place names: houses, streets, streams, districts, mountains, sites, etc. They are a testament to our city and our surroundings, and provide a myriad of information on the ethnography, history and geography. And they do not only refer to the surroundings, society and lifestyle, but also to the language.
We therefore need to preserve our place names, just as we do with the other elements of our intangible cultural heritage. That is even more so if we take into account how quickly society is changing, how rapidly we are progressing. In recent decades, the ever-increasingly urbanisation of the territory has led to the loss of many place names and, in turn, the creation of new ones.
Bilbo-Abando
Colon de Larreategi 14, 2. esk.48001 Bilbo (Bizkaia)
Tel.: +34 94 443 76 84
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Derio
Larrauri 1A, 5.a48160 Derio (Bizkaia)
Tel.: +34 94 406 01 71
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Bilbo-Bolueta
Metroalde eraikinaBilbo-Galdakao errep. 6A
48004 Bilbo (Bizkaia)
Tel.: +34 94 607 72 10
labayru@labayru.eus
